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    Page 6 of 6 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 5 6
    Results 101 to 112 of 112
    1. #101
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      My rocker panels came last night. So, I decided to start that. Hoped it wasn't as bad as the driver's side. Nope. Other than the floor being intact (from what I can tell) the rest is at least as bad.





















      Yay, Michigan weight reduction. Sigh. Here we go again, after my steel gets here this week.



      Jay


    2. #102
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      OK, so I got sick of waiting for my steel to arrive. I've got like 3 or 4 things I ordered stuck in Detroit. Some of it is like a week late already. I took some leftovers from my rocker panels and made a panel to patch the inner rocker. I pressed the drain slots in the same as the other side, but I spent more time getting it to fit better. Turned out pretty good. Ordered some Internal Frame Coating from Eastwood but forgot to order Rust Encapsulator. Ooops. Guess I'll stick to Rust Reformer since I have it. My weld through primer should be here today, I think.











      Need to make the front piece that attaches to the body mount, but it's about 4" tall and I don't have a piece tall enough to make it. It's also supposed to rain today, so probably not getting anything done today.


      Jay

    3. #103
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      I have 3 packages that disappeared on 4/26 at the Detroit Distribution Center. Usually I would get them the next day, and it's holding me up on the project. One shows it left Queens, NY arrived in Detroit, then arrived back in Queens (but doesn't show leaving Detroit) and is now "In transit to the next destination." I've got some other stuff I want to buy and I'm using eBay and looking for people who ship UPS or FedEx. I understand needing to be patient, but one of my packages has been in Indiana for like 4 or 5 days now.



      One of them is my weld-through primer so I can put my a-pillar/rockers on.



      I got all the pieces I needed to fabricate ready to weld, pretty much.



















      The rust you see on the bottom of the a-pillar just hasn't been cut out yet.



      I got my teflon coated, fuel safe 12ga wire for my fuel pump, I'm waiting on a sealed relay socket and 40A relay and terminals for the Walbro connector (for the right sized wire.) They're in Limbo right now. Somewhere around the house I have a ATL CFD-504 bulkhead connector to run the wire in. I need to look for that.



      Still waiting on my Jeep Commander Vents, too. Looking around I found a G8 GXP cupholder that has a chrome ring that looks like it would match the vents...which also (I think) would look good with an Escalade cluster. But I'm not that far yet.



      Jay

    4. #104
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      Well, I finally got the lower passenger side done. I welded up a hole I had punched for plug welding (thinking it was in the wrong spot) and then when I realized I was wrong, I tried to punch it again and popped a tendon in my wrist. Yay.

      So, progress may slow down, which sucks because the weather is great and the junkyards I go to opened back up.



      First off, I had to remove the hinge again. I really didn't want to do it. But this time I drilled 2 1/8" holes and used them as locators instead of making a new jig like when I did the other side.







      I made a new a-pillar lower piece again, but this time I cut it and re welded it slightly narrower so it fit in the new rocker panel.







      Welded up the inner rocker panel (which I made just like the other side (including pressing it for 4 slots and having to bang one of them back flat. Sigh) I tried UPol copper weld through primer this time. Less spatter than the zinc 3M I used last time. Every place I won't be able to get to go covered. And when it's all done, I'm coating the insides with Eastwood Internal Frame Coating.







      Inner kick panel welded to the floor and kick panel.







      Close up --- anyone else see a Lego guy in this? lol







      Welded the new lower inner a-pillar support to the outer rocker, then added a backer to make it easier to weld.







      Outer rocker welded back on







      I hung the door back on (after injuring myself, which was dumb)







      The back of the rocker doesn't fit amazingly, so I'm going to cut a couple of slits and weld it into the right shape. It's rounder and slightly fatter than the factory piece. This side went way better than the other side.



      I also started making a template to smooth the firewall,







      I'd like to get it bead rolled or pressed (I may try making a jig with my router and pressing a shape with my 20 ton press. It's only like 18-20ga, so it should press pretty easy. But I was waiting until my ICT Billet coil relocation brackets came (which they did today) so I can work around the shape of the coils. PCM will be going inside the truck (and I got the GM bracket from a later S-10 to use for that.



      Might drag the GF's nephew with me to the junkyard this week. lol. He can help me get heavier stuff. lol

      There's an Extreme 2002 or 2003 Blazer there currently. The RPO codes don't say it has the ZQ8 suspension, but I thought all the Extreme's did.



      Jay

      - - - Updated - - -

      Also, got the Commander vents, and they're a little on the small size. Not sure I'm going to use them. Might look for F150 vents.

    5. #105
      Join Date
      Nov 2018
      Location
      Oregon
      Posts
      230
      Looking good! At work I have to use the 3m zinc weld through primer and after it dries we hit it with map gas briefly so it welds better.

    6. #106
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by Jaymzz View Post
      Looking good! At work I have to use the 3m zinc weld through primer and after it dries we hit it with map gas briefly so it welds better.
      I saw (in an Amazon review) that a helpful tip was to scrape some of the primer away in the spots you need to plug weld, and that helped a lot.
      Once the arc starts it welds much easier than if you leave the primer intact.

      Jay

    7. #107
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      So, I think I mentioned it, but while putting the rocker on the truck I messed up my wrist. It's still screwed up, but my stubborn a** kept trying to use it (since I'm back to work and want to get stuff done on my own stuff, as well).



      I haven't really done much to the truck, but I have built a few tools.



      I built a bench harness, and picked up a bluetooth dongle so I can use LSDroid to turn off VATS and turn on fan controls, and stuff. A friend offered to use their HP Tuners to tune it, but there might be a time delay between me getting the truck running and her being able to tune it, plus we're about 60 miles apart.



      I used an aluminum project box from Amazon. Some banana plugs, a set of XT60 plugs, and some harness parts from the JY. I also used switches from Amazon.



      I used the XT60 plugs on the power harness so I can switch between the banana plugs (for use with my 30A power supply) or big alligator clips so I could hook it to a battery.



      One switch is main power (red) and ignition is blue.











      OBD2 is mounted to the end of the box, and the connections were all soldered and wrapped in Tesa Interior harness tape.



      The other thing I built was a tubing straightener, for my fuel (and possibly brake lines).



      I looked at a lot of options, and none seemed like they were worth $100+.

      I watched several YouTube videos, and found a user named "asquaregarden"

      and I really liked his idea. Instead of being able to clamp a straightener in the vice, he used aluminum stock to make new vice jaws with wheels mounted to it.

      Instead of using a spring loaded tensioner like on the common ones I found, this just uses the vice. I think I have around $50 in it.



      I picked up some 3/4" x 1" x 18" 6061 Aluminum for around $25 shipped from Onlinemetals.com. The wheels came from Amazon.



      https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1



      The aluminum jaws are 6" long, with 4 holes in the 3/4" thickness, spaced 1 3/8" apart. The first mounting hole started 5/8" from the end. The holes were drilled with a #9 bit, and tapped to M6x1.0. I used M6x30mm screws and M6 nuts for the assembly. The holes for mounting to the vice were centered (which might not have been the best idea, but it worked. When I drilled the recesses for the screw heads, I hit one of the threaded holes that the wheels bolt through. All in all, it seems like it should work pretty well. The guy I got the idea from didn't really mention measurements in his video so I figured I'd post what seemed to work for me.















      You have to make sure all the wheels are oriented the same, one side was deeper than the other. when they are oriented correctly, the nuts keep the wheel doesn't touch the aluminum.







      I didn't have a drill press, so I used this drill guide to keep the holes vertical.



      The finished product:







      I plan to buy a better vice, so this will probably become my permanent tubing straightener.



      Also, I still haven't chosen a radiator. lol



      Jay

    8. #108
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      So, I tried out the tubing straightener with 3/8 and 5/16 NiCopp lines. Seemed to work pretty well.



      So, since I don't have a bench, I did this outside on top of my Stanley FatMax rolling tool box. I used a "tight-quarters" Ridgid tubing cutter, and a Husky deburring tool (which I would probably not use again.) As you can see in the pics, the line has a pretty good curve to it.















      5/16" worked pretty much as well.







      The guy I got the idea from said he went down to 3/16, IIRC...might have been 1/4"



      I tried my tubing bender on the 3/8 and it worked well, but on 5/16 it pinched the corners, so I think it is meant for 3/16, 1/4, and 3/8. I'll need to look for one that can do 5/16.



      Jay

    9. #109
      Join Date
      Nov 2018
      Posts
      642
      Country Flag: United States
      Back in the olden days, before the mandrel bending machine, they used to pack tubing with sand and then weld or pinch off the ends. They would then bend the pipe. When the sand has no place to go, it forces the tubing to remain tubular during the bend. When finished, cut off the ends and clean out the sand.

    10. #110
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      The NiCopp bends pretty easy. But the mandrel in my bender is too small for the 5/16. I don't really want to have to clean sand residue out of my fuel or brake lines.
      But I've seen people do what you are saying.

    11. #111
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      Apparently I didn't post that I received my radiator. I got a Champion, all aluminum dual 1" core. Of course, when researching it, I found good reviews, but after I searched "Mounting aluminum radiator" I found tons of posts where people said their aluminum radiators cracked and leaked. Sigh.

      Yeah, there's a bunch of people talking about problems they've had with aluminum radiators over on LS1Tech right now. I already bought it, and I'm going to do what I can to mount it as good as possible, but I can't say I'm not a little worried. Hopefully I get at least a couple years out of it.



      I haven't done much to the truck over the last few weeks, but I've been working on my garage. I've been taking the handicapped ramp out in sections when I have time. I took the first section out and used the wood to build a bench. I bought a new vice, and for the first time in at least 20 years I have a vice mounted to a bench. I can also mount my bench grinder on the bench, as well. lol



      This should free up a lot of space in the garage for me to get around the truck. I also made a shelf that will bolt to the unused man door so I can finally use the air conditioner I've had for years. Hoping this will at least let me keep it somewhat comfortable when it's stupid hot out and I can keep progress up.



      Hit the junkyard this morning, and got calipers and abutment brackets from a 2000 Camaro. The 3 yards I go to usually only get 94-97 F-bodies. I saw they put a 2000 out yesterday and figured I'd see if they were still there...and they were, surprising since the car was right on the aisle. I had been debating between these and the 4 piston Brembos from the Cadillac ATS. These presented themselves, so I went with these.



      I found a guy on eBay that sells brackets and turned down rotors to adapt C5 and C6 calipers to a 1st gen S-10, but he only has a rating in the 97% range. I usually try not to buy from people with less than 99%....but since Sean seems to have gone MIA and Flynbye seems to be less than reputable, I'm debating on taking the chance. He does include bearings and stuff in his kits, so at least I wouldn't have to go grab those. He does sell the turned down rotors separately, and I can make my own brackets I guess.



      Anyway, I'm still alive, truck isn't dead.



      Jay

    12. #112
      Join Date
      Nov 2018
      Posts
      642
      Country Flag: United States
      Vibration is your enemy here. You'll want to pay close attention to the mounting points to make sure it's well isolated from the engine. Tight, direct routed hoses look nicer, but consider how hard a hose is when pressurized. A short, directly routed hose will act like a steel bar attaching the engine to the radiator, and the hose will push and pull on the radiator as the engine torques on its mounts when you change throttle positions. A couple of sharp bends in the hose gives a breaking point between the engine and radiator to prevent engine torque from reaching the radiator. Flex hoses will do this for you as well.

      You'll also want to ground the radiator to the frame. An isolated radiator with hot fluid running through it can set you up for galvanic corrosion, and this becomes a serious problem if you live near an ocean. Grounding it gives the extra electrons a place to go. For that matter, if you ever have to get into your heater box, grounding the heater core and the air conditioner evaporator will help prevent leaks for the same reasons.

      Address these two problems and you really shouldn't have a problem with an aluminum radiator. Large tube aluminum radiators are stronger and better built than copper radiators.

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